This is Why I Blog
Why do I Blog?
Recently Wendy from Girl Meets Debt shared a beautiful story about meeting a reader of hers who has become financially more responsible thanks to the GMD blog. As a side note, I am bummed that Wendy is taking a blogging break especially because she is very inspirational, but hopefully she will be back sooner than later. Her post made me think about my own blogging journey. When I first started blogging, I did it as an outlet because I was not allowed to have a blog while I worked for my former employer. For me, it was fun to just express myself and not have to worry about getting compliance approval before I did.After blogging for a few months, though, I found myself becoming very involved in the community and with many of the other personal finance bloggers out there. I know that most people outside of the community don’t understand it, but I truly feel as though I have made a number of new friends and it is through blogging that I have met them. I never expected to feel connected to people I never met in person, but for many of the bloggers that I like, they share pieces of themselves with their readers and it makes us feel connected in return.
Bloggers are My Friends
A few weeks ago, Cat from Budget Blonde, posted that she was moving to New Jersey, and rather than comment on her blog, I immediately emailed her and asked her when and where she was going to move because I do not live far from most of New Jersey. The great news was that she informed me that she was only moving about 30 minutes away from me, so I told her to let me know when she gets here and I was going to bring over food and I wanted to hold her babies. I know that we have never met in person and this would seem like a crazy idea to let a complete stranger in your house and allow them to hold your babies, but as many bloggers know, our blog friendship is very similar to any other friendship.So, I enlisted FB Hubby to help with some food prep all last week and on Friday I delivered about 9 dinners, a mother’s day gift, cake and brownies to the Budget Blonde household. As you can see, I got to hold those adorable Budget Blonde babies and I also got to not only meet Hubs but Aunt Mary too. We had a great time catching up and I was so thankful that I could help them out since they just moved halfway across the country to a foreign place with 6-week-old twins.
Friends Can Come from Anywhere
I realized that while I was making the food for the Budget Blonde family, that this is why I blog. I blog for the community and the relationships that it has brought into my life. I never thought that I would have this sort of experience from blogging, but I love it.
- I mourned for DC from Young Adult Money and his wife when they lost their beloved cat.
- I love hearing about Holly at Club Thrifty’s creative travel planning thanks to her brilliant credit card churning.
- I was so excited when Stefanie from Broke and Beautiful Life got to see her boyfriend who is working abroad.
- I celebrated Erin from Broke Millennial starting a new job and making an exciting change in her career.
- I was excited for John at Frugal Rules and his wife to get away for a fun Vegas trip for his 40th birthday.
- I laughed for over an hour on the phone with J Money from Budgets Are Sexy about crazy money habits of people and was excited to hear that his latest little guy arrived in the world healthy.
- I feel Laurie at The Frugal Farmer’s pain when she is set back from her financial goals because of high utility bills.
- I cheered for KK at Student Debt Survivor when she got her licensing exam completed.
Personal finance is personal, and I am so glad that I get to share in the personal journeys of so many wonderful people. I send a big thank you to Cat for letting me into her home and sharing her time and beautiful babies with me for an afternoon. And I thank all of you personal finance bloggers for sharing your stories, the good, the bad and the ugly, you are the reason why I blog.